


This Isn't the End, Only the World's Longest Intermission

by PiningTsukkiEnthusiast



Series: Soulmate AUs [4]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Anyways, Bakeneko, Fluff, Isn't it?, M/M, Romantic Soulmates, Self-Indulgent, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, after the neko v karasuno match, god this was SO self indulgent, just a couple of old fools, realizing they're in love, takes place in an imaginary time, that's a thing, too tired to timeline, yeet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-11-28 03:14:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20959529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PiningTsukkiEnthusiast/pseuds/PiningTsukkiEnthusiast
Summary: Ukai has had a soulmark for fifty years but never knew who put it there.Nekomata hasn't found his soulmate yet.





	This Isn't the End, Only the World's Longest Intermission

**Author's Note:**

> self indulgent nonsense. hve fun

Some people didn't fall in love with their soulmates until later in life.

Often, it’s because they gave up on the possibility of finding them. They marry someone they love, who isn't their soulmate, and they carry on.

Ikkei knew that firsthand, except it was more complicated than that. He had a soulmark. He just didn't have a clue who put it on his chest.

It happened in his third year of high school, after a winter training camp. That was all lkkei knew about his soulmate. Well, that, and they were supposedly in love with him.

When people didn’t find their soulmates, there were matchmakers who would help them find someone they could love just the same. That was how Ikkei met his wife: a wonderful woman who had found her soulmate, but he died before they could marry. And she may not have been Ikkei’s soulmate, but he loved her just the same.

And, with all his heart troubles, it should've been him. But instead, his wife passed away, and he just kept _living._

It would be okay, though. Maybe, just maybe, he would find his soulmate.

“Those damn kids really did it!” Ikkei laughed, handing Nekomata a beer. “It only took, what, fifty some years?"

“You’d better not drink that beer, Ukai,” Nekomata chided, taking both beers. “Your heart condition, remember?"

Ikkei clicked his tongue in annoyance and took his beer back. “I'm almost seventy years old. I've worked hard my entire life. If I want to put that life on the line by drinking cheap, shitty beer with my oldest friend, I'll do it.”

Nekomata rolled his eyes. “I'll kill you myself if you don't take care of yourself.”

“You're worse than my grandson,” Ikkei snorted. “I promise I'll only drink the one, eh?”

“Still an idiot this late in life.”

“_Eh_, what was that, bakeneko?”

“You're not taking care of yourself; that's stupid.”

“Tch.” Ikkei drank some of his beer before turning to his friend. “Luckily, I still have a curiosity about that soulmate bullshit, or I'd just do whatever I want, whenever I want, come what may.”

Nekomata paused, his beer only halfway to his lips. “What was that?”

Ikkei frowned. “I don't know who my soulmate is. Haven't I told you that?”

“No. I thought you married your soulmate.”

“Huh. Fifty years, and I somehow forgot to mention that.”

Nekomata huffed a laugh. “Idiot.” Then, “I never found mine either, you know.”

“I bet you haven’t had words on your chest for over fifty years, just waiting to figure out who in the hell put them there.”

“It’s not a competition, you old fool,” Nekomata cackled. “How could you not know?”

Ikkei shrugged. “It only says, _this isn’t the end._ I must have heard that a hundred times at our final training camp. It wasn’t like I searched my chest every day for soulmarks.”

Nekomata seemed to go through all five stages of grief in the two seconds it took for him to process Ikkei’s words.

“Do you mean to tell me–?” Nekomata frowned, and then he laughed. “You’re even stupider than I thought you were, do you know that, Ukai-kun?”

“Hah? What makes you say that, bakeneko?” Ikkei demanded.

Nekomata just laughed harder. “You were just thinking of people who said it to you. But did you ever consider there was only one person at training camp stupid enough to _love you_?”

Ikkei thought back, as much as one _could_ think back five decades. “It could’ve been a manager–”

“You really are an old fool,” Nekomata cackled. “Why would a manager tell you that?”

“Because–” Ikkei stopped. He turned to his oldest friend, curiously searching his face for a hint at what he was supposed to be getting.

All he saw was…well, was Nekomata Yasufumi, Ikkei’s closest and oldest friend.

And maybe Ikkei was an old fool – maybe he’d just been an idiot his whole life. But for a moment, he remembered the first time he saw that face. They were fifteen, or maybe sixteen, he really couldn’t be bothered to remember. And he _knew_ that he was going to spend the rest of his life competing with Nekomata.

He supposed that came true. It was fated, anyhow, when two minutes into their first conversation, they’d exchanged the soulmarks of fated rivals. That was what they were, right? Rivals?

Nekomata had changed a lot over the years – _obviously_, and so had Ikkei. But Nekomata’s eyes, they were the same eyes they’d always been. Kind, and warm, filled with good humor – and he’d always had such soft features. It was a wonder he’d never gotten married.

Which brought Ikkei back to the issue at hand: who was his soulmate? Who–

He blinked once, twice. Nothing happened. The world did not turn upside down and his best friend did not grow a second head. In every functional way, the world was the same as it ever was.

“Bakeneko, you mean to tell me…that you had a crush on me in high school?”

Nekomata chopped him on the head. “Show some tact, you old idiot!”

Ikkei was far from disgusted or repulsed – if anything, just thinking about it made sense. And he’d seen the way his idiot grandson looked like a lovestruck fool around that teacher soulmate of his – he had no problem with same sex couples, soulmate or no. In his day, it wasn’t considered an _option_, but these days?

He looked at the man beside him, a warmth filling him that he’d only felt once before, when he was still in high school.

“That’s gay, bakeneko.”

Nekomata’s face went blank, hand immediately to his chest. “I swear to god, Ukai.”

Ikkei smiled wider. “I should be apologizing for an embarrassing soulmark, right?”

“I’ve waited over fifty years,” Nekomata grumbled, undoing a couple buttons, “and if I see the words, _that’s gay, bakeneko,_ on my chest, I swear I’ll kill you.”

Ikkei howled with laughter when those very words met his eyes. “I’m so sorry, Yasufumi.”

“Liar,” Nekomata snorted, shaking his head. “You know, I’m retiring.”

“I’ve been retired,” Ikkei agreed, calming down. “What, you saying after all this time, at almost seventy, you wanna get married or something?”

Nekomata rolled his eyes. “Have we ever seen each other more than five times a year, Ikkei?”

Ikkei shook his head. “I suppose not.”

“Then, maybe…” Nekomata gestured vaguely at nothing. “We could find somewhere to live, you know. Together. If you wanted.”

“You’ll have to convince my pestering grandson.”

Nekomata hummed. “You won’t be allowed to drink.”

“If I can’t drink, neither can you,” Ikkei said petulantly.

“Alright.”

And it wasn’t much different than fifty years ago. Maybe, they sat a little closer than before. Maybe, Nekomata held Ikkei’s hand when they walked back to their cars the next day.

And maybe, that soulmark had come true:

_This isn’t the end._

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on [Twitter](https://www.twitter.com/lovingyachi) and scream with me about Haikyuu!! and other shit


End file.
